Tonight's matchup between the 1st and 6th best teams in the West is a preview of the Stadium Series game to be held outdoors at Dodger stadium on Saturday night.

The Kings did win the first matchup between these teams in December, by virtue of a 3-2 shootout win but since then the Ducks have been white hot and lead the conference by three points.

The Ducks have won eight of their last 10 to climb to the pinnacle of the conference whilst their rival Kings have lost three straight road games and are starting to slide out of play-off contention.

"We're doing what bad teams are doing," forward Justin Williams said following the loss to Columbus. "We're allowing special-teams goals. We're allowing breakdown goals. When teams score goals against us, they need to earn them and earn them heavily. We haven't done that lately."

Meanwhile the Ducks captain, Ryan Getzlaf bemoaned distractions ahead of the outdoors game this week but said his team needed to get over it: "That's an excuse, and it's nothing that our group hasn't been a part of before or will be part of again. When there are distractions, we've got to learn to play through them."

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